My first month here at the Mammoth Site has been amazing. I have done many things part of my job here, all of which give me a good look into both scientific and hospitable aspects of paleontology. During my education hours I give tours and teach paleontology classes. With these tours I show people around the bonebed (the main attraction of the site and the picture that I used in my last post) and educate them on whats inside. In my paleontology classes I give people of all ages simple lessons on the methods of the field. This often includes time in huge dirt boxes where we hide bone replicas for people to find. In the lab, I do lots of screen picking and bone work. With screen picking I find things that are hidden in the sediment taken from the main site. These can include bone fragments, shells, small mammal bones, and even fish vertebrae (Shown below in the vial).I found my first fish vertebrae in my first week of working here! I have also starting acetoning a mammoth vertebrae, which means that I am taking off the extra sediment and old consolidants ( a picture of me doing this is also featured below). In addition to this, I am removing plaster from the Axis of a mammoth with a tool known as an air scribe. With my other time working I am in the bonebed mapping bones, studying sediment, and cleaning bones currently out for show.
I love doing all of this!